Mixing R12 & R134a

a friend of mine did this (mixed r12 & r134) and he said it worked fine for years. he finally got rid of car and it was still working. it was an old Ford van.

My local A/C repair shop tells me that they often use FR-12 in older systems like mine ('91 Explorer). They informed me that FR-12 is a blend of R12 and R134a.

What the shop didn't know was that my compressor was replaced in Dec of '98 and that a placard on the this compressor states, "Use R134a Only". However, since the valve fittings on the A/C system are still the older R12 threaded type, I'm GUESSING that my A/C is still filled with R12.

Knowing that I have an updated compressor, and that A/C shops sell FR-12, I'm now asking myself if there's any reason I can't simply add R134a to my R12 system??

Has anyone ever done this before??

Any help is appreciated,

Mike

FR-12 is (IIRC) Freeze-12.... touted as a drop-in replacement for R-12. Freeze 12 contains no R-134a. I get worried when a shop fibs..... R12 and R134a are incompatible.

The EPA has mandated that all existing refrigerant be evacuated from the system before Freeze 12 is installed..... it's against the law not to. Just having the R134a sticker on your compressor and no R134a fittings on the system could cause someone, somewhere some real grief.

If we mix refirgerants or use so-called drop-in substitutes for the two widely accepted refrigerants, we will more than likely find ourselves with an unrepairable system..... no conscientious AC shop will allow their recovery equipment to be contaminated with a "virus" (refrigerant identifiers are brutally honest) nor will they release refrigerants into the atmosphere. Bear in mind that even the AC shop that hacks the repair may either refuse to service the system in the future or they may release this crap into the air that affects us all.

There may even be shops that are using propane/butane blends in AC systems..... flammable gasses under extreme pressure impress the h*ll out of me....

HTH

Jim Warman snipped-for-privacy@telusplanet.net

Have you looked at the first two links here?

I own the site; was going to do some wonderful things there but never really got around to it. "Strickland Propane" is of course where Hank Hill (of FOX-TV's "King of the Hill") works. I was pretty astonished to find the domain available and registered it more by reflex than anything else :-)